After the Ashes: A Beautiful Altadena Podcast

Episode 19: Altadena in the Big Picture – Local Failure, National Conversations

• Shawna Dawson Beer

Share episode

We're back from a Thanksgiving break with a long one. In Episode 19 we step back from the rubble and zoom out to the national landscape — because what’s happening in Altadena is playing out on a national stage. We dig into local government failure from the national perspective, why communities like ours are repeatedly left to rebuild ourselves, and how the latest political maneuvers, including the first draft of Supervisor Barger’s new CRD (Climate Resiliency District) brought to you by SRP's SB782 continue to rewrite reality. No La Cañada? No Pasadena? More omissions, more distortions from what we were told, and once again… Altadena rebuilding Altadena.

We also dive into the growing concerns around the incomplete Army Corps of Engineers cleanup, the unanswered questions piling up, and the ongoing pattern of accountability with no accountable party. Who’s in charge? Who’s responsible? And why is no one addressing the gaps?

On the brighter side, we’re celebrating a season full of small business and community strength. We recap recent events, including the Rhythms of the Village Fall Festival at Muir (@rhythmsofthevillage), the long-awaited reopening of Mariposa Junction (@mariposajunction), and last weekend’s Winter Bloom (@odysseycharter) and Ornaments for Altadena celebrations at the Odyssey campus.

Mark your calendars:

✨ Winter Market at Plant Material (@plantmaterial) — December 13 & 14, 10am–4pm, at Lincoln & Altadena Drive

✨ The 105th Christmas Tree Lane Lighting (@christmastreelane_altadena) on Saturday, December 13, featuring a hyper-local makers market in the Altadena Library parking lot (@altadenalibrary). Support the small businesses who support our community!

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome back to After the Ashes, the beautiful Altadena podcast that breaks down legislation recovery after our urban fire. I'm your co-host Steve here, and this is episode 19. Shauna?

SPEAKER_00:

Good morning.

SPEAKER_01:

Would you like to give us the snappy title you gave?

SPEAKER_00:

I will give us the snappy title for episode 19: Altadena in the Big Picture. Local failure, national consequences. Is that a good setup for what we're going to talk about today?

SPEAKER_01:

Ponder that, folks. Take a minute. Are we done? Let it let it let it, you know, kind of percolate. There's the word I was looking for.

SPEAKER_00:

Did I have more caffeine than you today?

SPEAKER_01:

Probably.

SPEAKER_00:

I just came in so relaxed and calm. Um, and Steve was uh made some comments and I was like, Steve, this is very rude. And he said, It's just my sarcasm and wit. And I was just, it's banter. And I didn't respond. And then he poked and prodded some more and said, Oh, and then I I got pretty uh snippy in my retort, and that he said, Oh, and now here she is. Now we're ready to go. She's in character now and she's ready. Steve had to warm me up today. I did not come in riled up.

SPEAKER_01:

I know it was too, it was, it was a weird, weird morning. So anyway, now that we've got her back into character and we're ready to handle some of the issues that need to be handled, I you know, I I couldn't, I couldn't carry the load myself. I'm just not gonna go. You couldn't.

SPEAKER_00:

So I think, you know, and this is uh what we're gonna talk about for this episode, and we're recording today on um December, what is the day? The second, December 2nd. It's hard to believe it's December 2nd. We're 11, just about 11 months into this, just shy of our year.

SPEAKER_01:

Um that's why a lot of people are starting to ask questions again.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it is the time to ask questions, and we're and we're gonna delve into that in this and our next episode. But um, you know, I think it is time to go back and look at what's happening big picture, right? We end up talking, it's hard not to talk about some of a lot of the minutiae and various issues impacting uh groups, the town at large, individuals, because that's our day-to-day life. You know, we we're trying to recover um from um uh a very significant trauma and loss. But, you know, we also have to look at sometimes pull out and look at the big picture and what's working and what isn't. And I think that the overarching theme that I continue to see, and I know you too, Steve, um, and this has come up repeatedly as multiple journalists are working on their year-end stories, is what's working and what isn't, and especially, you know, frankly, the failure of our local government, right? We know we had failure of government that kind of got us into this mess in January in the first place through mismanagement of resources.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, and you've been very activist in ensuring that that message is getting out. Well, yeah. You and a lot of the groups that you've been working with.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, it's not, it's certainly not just me, but I think it's an important one, not because, you know, and now I'm gonna go off and down the little side path, but I'm gonna bring it back. Um it's not just about placing blame and like, oh, someone has to go down or anything like that. It's about the fact that if we don't have real accountability and more important, the real change that comes from real accountability. Not only does this continue to happen here in our town, this is going to happen to another town and we're going to see another community taken out. And um, you know, I think that that is something we should all be concerned with. It's a much bigger picture than just us, which as I said, I would bring it back. It's it is more than that. You did, you did.

SPEAKER_01:

And I think this is something I've been writing more about recently. And I know some of the people who are my loyal readers, all five of you, thank you. Um, you know, I I think you've noticed that this is something that we have been trying to elevate the conversation. And I've been talking about elevation probably since August, but so many people are still very much in that A to B spot, right? Like you, Sean, how are you going to rebuild? How are you going to get your life back? Like, you don't really give a shit about the sorry, you don't care about the broader issues that are going on, you know, at the national level or at the state level. Yet at the same time, you know, for you, it's like, can we just solve the problem in front of us? And so it's LA County, City of Los Angeles for the Palisades. Like that is the dynamic. Those are the people that are supposed to be executing this. And then, you know, start you start to kind of step back from it a little bit, and you start to realize, look, there's still many different levels to this. And there's all these narratives that are occurring. And it started out just very much, let's deal with the fire. And then we had the shift occurring over the summer where Prop 13 started or Prop 50 started popping in, and the nationalization of some of the politics here in California. And you know, things are starting to switch, and we're starting to get into this the midterms, as I was saying, and the narratives after November 4th are starting to really come out, and we're starting to hear more and more about affordability, and you know, that sort of be seems to be the theme that people are attributing the wins in no, you know, last November or November of this year to. And again, it even the through line goes back to Trump in 24, which was affordability. And I think that this is this is where Al Tedina is going to have to start to kind of plug into this national narrative because to be honest, like we're getting drowned out. And the more we keep looking at this question of accountability, I know I use the word affordability, but I mean to the accountability, the last year has just been a story after story after story after story of failures. And we don't want to be negative here. I'm tired of being negative, I'm tired of being critical.

SPEAKER_00:

Um I've said, I wish I had a dollar for every time I've said, I would love to be wrong. And I would love to not be talking about this. I'm if you know me for the not everyone knows me, certainly not most of our listeners. Um, I think most of the listeners know you. No, I think it's easy to have a as we joked about me getting in character this morning, it's easy to have a perception of me based on one element, right? But um, I'm generally a very chill myself. I'm a pretty calm, yeah, and certainly a very diplomatic and reasonable, measured person. Um, I would love to not be doing this. I would love for our electeds to do things right and do their jobs and frankly to give us cause to praise them. I would love that. Um, but unfortunately that's that hasn't happened.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, and and and I think that that's the you know the theme of the conversations that we've been having more and more is that it's all levels, you know, and our our initial reaction in California is to knee-jerk and you know hit the federals and especially Trump. And that's an easy target. We've been beating that drum for a year and they'll probably still have three more years of that here. But that doesn't excuse the failures that have occurred in Sacramento and certainly the scandals that are occurring in Sacramento right now, which you know have kind of moved to the back burner over the holiday. But let me tell you something, that hasn't stopped. Um, and you know, here at the local level. I mean, just this morning the LA Times had another piece about how it's consistent that fires are start restarting after they're supposedly out, right?

SPEAKER_00:

You know, so and then and Steve's talking about what happened in the Palisades as um, but they hadn't won it.

SPEAKER_01:

It was only a couple of acres. But it's like, yeah, this is not a problem that's going away. And like what where where is the accountability? Last week it was the county pointing the f you know, the f or the city pointing their fingers at the state park system and the state park system pointing their fingers at the city. Someone saying it was the nature observers. Like everybody's pointing their fingers at everyone else, and nobody's giving a direct answer. And I think that that's what I'm hearing from the community is frustration at all levels of a lack of accountability. And, you know, and it goes back to that piece that was written over the weekend in the LA Times by Mark Baraback about scandals. And I think that that was that was it resonated with me, not you know, because scandals are always interesting, but I think we use the term scandal in a in an in a very ubiquitous way. But what he was saying is it's when actions don't meet the expectation. And, you know, as I started to really think about what he was saying, and again, he was talking about the Katie Porter story and that was becoming a you know, a scandal that blew over, Donald Trump with his, you know, womanizing. But again, if you know the people, there's not that much of a shift in what those expectations are because that's who these people are, that's their public persona. Whereas if you are, say, a Gary Hart or I I use the term Gary Hart.

SPEAKER_00:

Does anyone listening know who Gary Hart is?

SPEAKER_01:

No, but he was like the biggest example in the 1980s that people use of there was a picture of him with his, you know, the person he was his mistress or whatever. And, you know, he had to explain it. But when you use the term, you know, the idea of you being a family man, and then you have you're exposed for being a hypocrite, that's what the scandal is. And I think we are changing the way that we personify ourselves today. But I think that's also if you want to think about scandals, and I know a lot of writers have been kind of circling around this idea, and I know that time started to go down this road, but again, we haven't even talked about time yet, but we will. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, we haven't been on since the Time magazine or we haven't. Oh, cool.

SPEAKER_00:

I slated it for episode 20, but we can jump into it in a minute.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I I think what what what they're really touching on, and I think what people here in Al Tedina are realizing is that it's the contrast of what's been publicly said and the actions behind it. And while that may not be a scandal from the perspective of, ooh, someone's going down, it's a scandal from the perspective of we know, I think the missing ingredient in the exact of the scandal is the concrete screwing over, you know, like the concrete action, the concrete when the town, you know, the homes are sold or the town is shifted. That's where the scandal will be, but that'll be in a couple of years. Well, we know the scandal's happening as we speak. I think everybody has the feeling. It's almost as if like you know that your your significant other might be cheating on you, but you don't know who with whom or how. If that makes sense. It's like there's this trust dynamic that humans have that they realize, but they just don't understand it because something's not adding up.

SPEAKER_00:

So now what?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know. I usually you have comments on this stuff. You didn't stop me.

SPEAKER_00:

I didn't. I wanted to listen to where you were gonna go with it, to be honest. But um I think it does, it comes back to this the what we've been talking about. That I land that we are we are this is a microcosm of what's happening in a much larger thing, right? And I think in people understanding that what is playing out in Altadina is playing out in Altadena. And on one hand, you have an overarching theme of we are on our own, we are funding our own recovery, we are steering our own recovery, we are fighting for our own recovery because leadership is not leading in that regard for the hundred reasons we've laid out in the last 18 episodes, right? But ultimately, this is not just about us. So, you know, we have it, you have it on this hyper local, but then as we again it affects the palisades too, right? Is it infects it impacts the palisades as well, and they're they're having very, very similar issues that to we are, and we'll talk more about that. But it is also this thing again that this impacts national government, right? And becomes part of this bigger story.

SPEAKER_01:

Sean is in PR, so she can take my words and make them digestible.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I try. Um, even sometimes I have to ask Steve to help explain because this is, you know, to use an expression that is not an expression I would use, but is appropriate here. Like this is inside baseball.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

All of it, right? This is um, you know, oftentimes when I make comments, I realize they don't, they don't necessarily land, um, especially with members of the community and certainly not with other group organizers and other community leaders, because they don't understand. I hardly understand. But we are literally talking about subjects that not only is it that we don't none of us have an understanding of, because why would we? But we also do I have to recognize all the time that I have knowledge and I have information that 99% do not. Well, and it's designed to be colors in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01:

And it's designed to be opaque. And, you know, that's the interest. I was having a conversation with somebody this morning that I think I kept saying to myself, are we missing something? Like it it, you know, so much of our political discourse and the way we govern is changing with social media and the speed at which everything's happening. But our communication strategies are not changing, at least from what I'm seeing, is it's still deny, deny, deny, obscure, obscure, obscure, hope it goes away. Extend, extend, extend. Instead of, you know what, I'm gonna change the dynamic and I'm gonna say, you know what, this was screwed up, this was done wrong, this could be done right, this could be done better. We we made this error. Oh, you know, uh it just I think what people are asking for is honesty. And then and again, it goes back to what I'm reading every article talking about candidates right now, authenticity. You know, right, wrong or let the people choose if you're if what you're presenting is actually what they want. And maybe they don't want your product, maybe they don't want what you're offering. That's fine. Then you can either change or you can get out of the way. But be authentic. Stop trying to, you know, manipulate. I guess that's the hardest thing is that it feels like everywhere we go in the political realm today, we're all asking for just a breath of fresh air, just a breath of honesty.

SPEAKER_00:

Just honesty. I I agree with you.

SPEAKER_01:

I think we're all we're we can handle it. Yeah, but I mean, look, here's the thing you can hide it all you want, but it's still gonna show up on social media as a conspiracy theory. It's not like it's going away. I and this is what I just don't I I'm trying to understand. Is this just uh the advice that politicals get because that's the way it's always been done? Or is there something else that I'm missing? And you're the one who's been in crisis PR, so you would know better than me.

SPEAKER_00:

I think it's the way that this has been done. I think it goes back again to something we've talked about so long. Like there is a very there is an existing power structure, there's an existing sense of how things have always been done, about what is comfortable, what is safe. You know, not and this is not just specific to the democra to the uh county government, to our unincorporated county government. It's the Democratic Party, right? It's a lot of things. And I think it this is it again, this gets us back again to how this is a bigger systemic issue in the entire country, where we have two parties that have ultimately collapsed under their own weight, that are ultimately quite corrupt, that by their own power, by their own money, and the the money is the power. And you know, and now here we are, and and who's left holding the bag? It's all of us. It's all of us sitting citizens, it's the non-existent middle class, it's the working class, it's most certainly the town of Altadina, right? Where we all of and all of its people, where we are all just kind of left holding the bag and asking these questions, and it gets into these, you know, other conversations that you know we constantly see playing out, especially in social media, of like, oh, quit voting for the Democrats, it's the Republicans, oh, the Republicans are the devil, it's it's Trump is the reason why we're so screwed because you know, no money came because of the federal government. All of those things can be true, but it ultimately it's blame not solution. Correct. It is blame not solution. It's like great, yeah, you know, let's stop pointing fingers. Someone has to step up and be accountable and figure out how the fuck we're gonna clean up this mess and how we're gonna pay for it. Because again, the how to clean up this mess, we would have a plan to clean up this mess. Even County, even Barger would have a great plan to clean up this mess if they had the money to execute that.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, they have resources, but they don't like the color of it, as I said this morning.

SPEAKER_00:

And so here we are. So to get us back, because we have a couple other topics to cover, and we're gonna do our best to not make this an hour-long episode, though I don't trust us, and it probably will be. Um, I had a good question for you, but oh, ask a question.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I forgot it now.

SPEAKER_00:

Well shit. Are you me? Are you are you are you perimenopausal, Steve?

SPEAKER_01:

I maybe. Adjacent.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh you'll it'll I'm in my mid 40s.

SPEAKER_01:

Who knows what's happening to me?

SPEAKER_00:

We'll have a conversation later with Steve about the changes in your body that you might be experiencing. Um, it's such a fun conversation to be experiencing pure puberty again at middle age. It's such a thrilling time.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh for all you kids out there.

SPEAKER_00:

Is it about the billionaires? Did you want to talk about the billionaires?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, no, what I was thinking about is, you know, I I this is where my head was going is if there are these problems, and these problems are so obvious, doesn't that create a tremendous opportunity? It does. And that's where my head is. Like we can sit here and we can talk about it. I mean, like we all understand we can continue to show demonstrations of the failures. But the void is there, we've defined the void. And I think that the definition that's being used right now, the affordability mantra that everybody's using, I don't think versus what versus wealth. And you'll hear me say this over and over again. And every time I talk to an elected about this, they're like, oh yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Wealth is because if you're wealthy, then you can afford. Logical. Now, the point is this is an opportunity where Altadena can be not just the poster child of what has been wrong, but also the poster child of how we can solve it. You know, we have candidates coming through here constantly. We had what swallow here a couple weeks ago.

SPEAKER_00:

Boy, that was a that was a spectacle to behold. But look, it started with Kamala.

SPEAKER_01:

It started with Kamala right after the right after the election. So like they have been coming to Altadina.

SPEAKER_00:

It's in every we are the ultimate photo op.

SPEAKER_01:

But the point being that you know we have this ability to say, hey guys, whether you want to run for president, whether you want to run for governor, let's showcase some of these policies because there's such a void here. We're missing the plan. And if there is a plan, it's not well defined enough that everybody knows what it is. Because if you ask 50 people on the street in Altadena as residents, what the plan is, none of them can tell you what it is.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

Maybe there are 50 people somewhere else that know it, and maybe one day we'll find out what it is. But as a public plan, right now there is no North Star.

SPEAKER_00:

No, there's not. And so there's no leader.

SPEAKER_01:

But this is where the the void exists that somebody could step in. You know, if I was again, I've said this a thousand times. If I was running for governor, I don't have the money. But if somebody wants to give me the money, I'll do it. Um, you'll do it, you'll run for governor. My wife would kill me. But I but my mother said that she will move to California if I did. I was like gonna put her head on a billboard and say, if you want her here, vote for Steve. But uh no, but in all seriousness, like this is the platform to run for governor. And this is the platform for the wealth agenda. This is the place to showcase it in advance of 2028. Because at the end of the day, you have to distinguish yourself. We have eight candidates, I think, right now, in the Democratic Party running for governor, because there was a piece in the Times yesterday talking about how it is there's a 10% chance that the Democrats will all basically consume each other and that two Republicans get through, which will never happen. But that's still pretty funny to think about because not only are they all competing with one another, they're all saying the same thing.

SPEAKER_03:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, even Tom Steyer or Steyer or whatever his name is, he's a billionaire and he's decided he wants to run. He took someone's advice about using Prop 50 to propel himself. I don't know who gave that advice.

SPEAKER_00:

Can't imagine.

SPEAKER_01:

I can't imagine. And now he's out there and he got attacked in the uh in the Wall Street Journal last week by Alicia Finley. And then this week he had a response in the uh Wall Street Journal. It was just yesterday, and he was laying out the affordability agenda. He did talk about privatizing public utility or public publicizing, taking over public utility or private utilities that are backed by public money.

SPEAKER_00:

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01:

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00:

Sound familiar, huh?

SPEAKER_01:

Sounds familiar. So, hey, Tom, since you're probably listening, maybe, hopefully, we got distinguish yourself. Utilize this time to put yourself in a different realm. You are a billionaire, you know how to create wealth. There are other billionaires that are potentially circling around, know how to create wealth. They know how to create wealth. Here's an opportunity. You got Ram Emanuel last week writing in the Wall Street Journal or two weeks ago, just after the Time article published, saying the word wealth twice. Ram Emanuel is on the presidential campaign, pretty potentially could run. He's Josh Lyman from West Wing. I mean, I'm a huge fan of Rah, by the way, just for what it's worth. I I just I like the way he does he all is no bullshit. Um but I think like these are these are the types of the there are people starting to hear the words, and why not make Altadina that the the showcase of all of this?

SPEAKER_00:

It's true. There's an opportunity here.

SPEAKER_01:

Shocking, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00:

For someone who can figure it out.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, yes.

SPEAKER_00:

And how's the money?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, there's there's the key. Is it because I think we can bring the money if we have the right leader who can start to corral some of that money. In other words, I'm not a billionaire. I would do it if I could, if I had a billion dollars. Yep. I mean, to quote the uh bare naked ladies, except add a B instead of M. I'd buy a K-car.

SPEAKER_00:

A million dollars doesn't get us very far.

SPEAKER_01:

It did in 1991 when it was now.

SPEAKER_00:

It's like you can have you too can have a teardown or a dirt lot to build a million-dollar house on. A million dollars. Um starter house, by the way.

SPEAKER_01:

Not even a yeah, but at least the starter home can help start the conversation towards wealth. You know, there's a quote that or there's a a quote that's being cited a lot right now. The average age of the home first home first time home buyer right now is 40 years old. So I bought my first house at 25, and I was the 40-year-old. And but the the average age used to be about 25, you know, about 15, 20 years ago. And that is 15 years of wealth that's not being accumulated by those that aren't buying their first home until 40.

SPEAKER_00:

Right, because the I mean it was hard enough for you, hard enough for me, and it's only getting harder and harder and less attainable, right? And and when we Which is why affordability is always the answer, is always the conversation.

SPEAKER_01:

But and then it's it's it's a question of well, what does that look like? And I think that we've reached a point now in our society that we just want straight answers. I don't care if it's a third rail issue, as anyone who reads my stuff knows I go after third rails all the time because guess what? Sometimes we have to go there, we have to have the conversation, and maybe because Altadina is just missing so much right now, we can have these conversations. Yep. You know, what's the worst that happens? We say no, at least we tried. It feels like that that's something more than we have right now. It would be. And so that's that's where my thinking is is that those that are looking at this as we come up on the one year, those that are coming to Altadena, those that are looking to run for higher office, looking at governor in 26, CEO and president in 28, other elected positions throughout. This is we are the case for this. And go start defining what the wealth agenda looks like because that's what people truly want. And we can be the place that these can be showcased. Like we can come up with creative financial solutions for you know, fixing the gaps that people have in terms of rebuilding their homes so they're not totally burdened with debt. There are innovative things that we can do here that aren't being discussed yet. And I think that this is the time and this is the place. And I would just, I'd love to use this platform of where we are to reimagine where we could be going as a country.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And really take this tragedy and turn it to something good.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Positive, because again, it is an opportunity. We are this is one big opportunity.

SPEAKER_01:

This is really strange. I'm talking a lot and you're agreeing with me.

SPEAKER_00:

I do agree with you. A lot of the time I agree with you.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I know. I'm just saying, I'm just this is weird. I'm used to listening more than talking.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm just I've I don't know why. I'm very calm. I don't know what to say. I'm um it's a it's now a bigger, we're gonna totally side rail into a conversation about grief and healing and all of this, but I don't know. I think that's probably just where I'm at with all of it. Um I want to give you a hug. And also tired. Also tired, um, as Steve knows. Like Steve's like, Jesus, are you okay? You just like and and people who know me, like, are you okay? Uh it's been it's been a long year, friends. It's been a really long year for all of us. Um and I don't want to say that I'm out of fight because I'm absolutely not out of fight.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, but this is what it is. You get to do that.

SPEAKER_00:

But this is this is what it is, right? For all of us, people are just like, oh my gosh, we need something. We need something positive, we need something to move in the right direction.

SPEAKER_01:

We need but not just an event, we need a North Star.

SPEAKER_00:

No, exactly. I'm not talking about an event. I mean, uh, we've had a thousand of those, and we'll talk about a couple of them at the bottom of the episode. But um we don't need that. Like we we have that, we have a resilient community, we have all of that, but what we need is a plan, something that everyone can unify and get behind and actually feel good about and and know that we are going to bring back a stronger, better community, albeit a very, very different one than what we lost. But you know, something. And that is not happening, and I think that's you know what's what's left a lot of us at a loss. And actually, it's a good segue to you know, the other thing that we've been talking about um in the last few days is the first draft of speaking of uh resiliency, see, the of of Barger's CRD, the climate resiliency district, and to remember.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, because you know the the really efficient homes that we had are now.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, yeah, because density worked out so well. I mean, you know, it's it's oof. Um gosh, and and uh my brain just went to like the idiocy around the trees, like, oh, let's take out the trees because you know beat it. I know, but still that's still in some circle conversation of in some circles, which is is maddening. But um, you know, so the first draft of the CRD of the climate resiliency district, and to refresh for anyone listening to all the fanfare that correct, with all the right so much fanfare that no one heard about this. Um, because gee, they maybe don't want everyone to hear about this.

SPEAKER_01:

Because they have to do a public hearing. Correct, even though we can't protest that they just don't want to hear the public hearing.

SPEAKER_00:

They don't want they don't want to hear public comment, which is kind of the case across the board. They did not want to engage or hear from the community.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, because they're gonna raise two billion dollars.

SPEAKER_00:

Correct. I know what B. Um, which again, two billion dollars sounds like an extraordinary amount of money, but comparison to what is needed. 2075, exactly, to what is needed, it's not, and that's you know, across exactly like the next what is that, 30, 40 years, which is in more 50 years? Jesus. Uh, you know, it's it's a joke. So it comes down to like, you know, for us, this is and again, I'm sorry, read listeners, I apologize. And I apologize too if you're listening to me crunching earlier because I was eating pretzels um on air, which I shouldn't be doing. I'm being very naughty today.

SPEAKER_01:

But uh that's why she was letting me talk. I was taking advantage of it.

SPEAKER_00:

I guess I was eating pretzels. Uh the CRD, again, if you've been listening to all the episodes, you know exactly what we're talking about. If you have not and you're just jumping in.

SPEAKER_01:

SB782 SRP CRD.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, this is what got us 782 and what 797 that could have bought brought tens of billions into the community now was junked for because that was different and challenging and challenged the current power structure. So no one wanted to touch it when we can have more of the same. That is a literal drop in the bucket and doesn't work. But, you know, this came out the first draft, and not surprisingly, it's as much of a nothing burger, or I guess we're we're ha ha someone someone said a nothing barger as expected. But um, the thing that really stood out for me, and I know for you too, Steve, uh, was that you know, we kept being told, you know, that this CRD, that this district would include Lachanata and Pasadena. And there was a lot of conversation.

SPEAKER_01:

What was the reason why they had to create this new language? Because it wasn't about removing the protests. We had to expand the territory of the affected areas by 20%. So said our state senator when she was explaining it to us in the community.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, during the summer. This is how this was this was positioned, and you know, and that created some confusion and frustration because it was like, hey, this is a two-way street. And if we're bringing in Lacanata and Pasadena, Lacanyata and Pasadena could very easily take money from us to solve their problems, which is why Lacanata and Pasadena were in quiet were entirely silent on this point.

SPEAKER_01:

Because who who was saying this?

SPEAKER_00:

We've been saying this, but they were entirely quiet on this point because it would have benefited them. They knew it would never be a matter of Them giving us money would be the other way around and they could take advantage. Correct, they could take advantage of the disaster economy in Altadena. But here, guess what's in the actual CRD now that it dropped? No Lacanata and no Pasadena. So we're not it is just Altadena. The district is us.

SPEAKER_01:

So we were right.

SPEAKER_00:

We of course we were right.

SPEAKER_01:

So they told everybody one thing to get them to the community groups to buy off on it.

SPEAKER_00:

Correct.

SPEAKER_01:

And they created this new legislation to do this massive territory because it was so necessary to expand the emergency. The property tax and the increment that it had to be in plus 20%. Yet they just used Altadena, which they could have done with an EIFD from the start, except they would have had to go through a protest.

SPEAKER_00:

Correct.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So long story short, it was a lie. We were lied to. Our groups and community was lied to. Well, we were we were misled. So let's see.

SPEAKER_01:

Misled.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, we learned that.

SPEAKER_01:

Lying has a negative connotation. Misled means that they're confused. Well, we told everybody what was gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00:

So now the folks who did this have to own it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yep. Well, and I think that more than just the people who did it, the people who went along with it who were complacent or complicit. They too bought the lie. Or sorry, bought the misunderstanding.

SPEAKER_00:

I give them, however, a pass because they genuinely didn't know. Yes, they did. We told them. I know we told them, but they genuinely didn't understand. And I know because I had so many conversations so many times. People genuinely didn't understand, and more so genuinely wanted to believe that what they were being told by their electeds was the truth. And you should be, and I think this gets back to again something we've been talking about repeatedly. It's the well, it's the pattern, but it's this trust, it's the lack of trust, right? It's like we should be able to trust our electeds. We should be able to trust that when someone says they're going to do something, that they're gonna do it. We should trust that when we pay property tax dollars that it actually pays for services. And evidently these things are not happening.

SPEAKER_01:

Our elected should also trust us. They don't. I mean, the this type of action demonstrates a lack of trust in the people who are having to elect them. They they treat us like children. Yep. Like we're an inconvenience. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I've said this before. It's a there's been entirely a very patriarchal approach to this entire But we're governed by matriarchs. Well, yes, we are apparently. That we should take what's given to us and be thankful for it. And, you know, go along with the plan that's been instituted for us because someone else knows better, even though clearly they don't, they couldn't even get our trash contact right. And, you know, uh here we go, here we are. So I have a feeling we'll be coming back to discuss this um a lot more in the coming weeks.

SPEAKER_01:

Here's the thing, I and this is what I've been saying is if we can elevate this, if we can make this particular matter, the rebuild of Al Tadena, a statewide or a national issue. It takes it out of the hands and opens the eyes of so much more. It opens up so many more doors, it opens up so many more opportunities that we don't have to just accept what we have been given. Right. Because as much as we have right now, based upon the public data that's been presented to us, it's all very limited. And there's a tremendous gap that exists. Even if the CRD is able to get to the full 2 billion, it's not going to rebuild Altadena.

SPEAKER_00:

No, it is not.

SPEAKER_01:

And you know, the nonprofits that are in the world.

SPEAKER_00:

And what we're waiting 50 years to rebuild Altadena? Come on.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, there's a in the let's just say that some of the nonprofits that are there right now don't even give Altadena the majority representation. So we are in a position right now where if somebody were to come in and actually do this right, you can have the community behind you, which I know is that's one of the issues that you know some of the outside organizations or some of the financial institutions have been concerned about, is they're gonna get run out of town with their head on a pitchfork.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Yeah. Because, you know, understandably, people are upset because they continue to be left out of the conversation. But if you were to come into the community and actually engage the community in a meaningful way, then you don't have to, it's it's not that hard to gain community support.

SPEAKER_01:

Look, and go back to what the community wants. It's wealth preservation, have a safe place to raise your kids, have a community that you can be proud of.

SPEAKER_00:

And a way to come back, a way to keep the people who are our community in the community.

SPEAKER_01:

And so there are ways to do all this. And so this isn't that hard. And then that's something that can become a springboard for something bigger. And that's what I keep saying. And that's it it just it's I guess it's the entrepreneur in me that I can't seem to let it go. Shouldn't let it go. It's opportunity.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

I know, and we always talk negatively, but there is hope.

SPEAKER_00:

There is.

SPEAKER_01:

It's just we gotta get the obstacles.

SPEAKER_00:

We have a lot of mess to clean up. And speaking of messes to clean up.

SPEAKER_01:

Ah, here you go. Yep. Army corps.

SPEAKER_00:

I want to talk about that. I got my lot cleared, right? I um Steve got to see a very funny photo of me on a skid steer. I thought it was a bobcat. He thought it's it's and I had to explain it's not quite the same thing, but that's okay. Um, but you know, why was I having my lot cleared? Because we had this, you know, Army Corps cleanup. Well, I won't go too far into this because again, if you listen, you know that um unlike past similar fires, including the Woolsey fire in 2018, we had a very incomplete cleanup. The um guidelines that the Army Corps was given did not include quite a lot.

SPEAKER_01:

Um it didn't include who is the Army Corps, just so everybody understands this.

SPEAKER_00:

The Army Corps is being managed by LA County Public Works.

SPEAKER_01:

So there was a contract that was created between the county and Army Corps. Okay, I I just I want that clearly known that this is not a point of uh as we are wont to do in California, pointing fingers at each other, there is a clear line of accountability here. Yes, there is because I, as a government contractor, and I am a government contractor, so I know all about this. If I do not fulfill my job, I have to make restitution andor fix it.

SPEAKER_00:

Correct. And there is a little of that, and we're gonna get into that, but it was also a matter of the contract not including a lot of what was needed because spoiler alert, we were about a billion dollars short of what was needed to do a similar adequate cleanup as past urban/slash wildfires. So whose fault is that? Well, this is where we get back into it's very easy to blame the federal government because typically that money comes from FEMA, and FEMA has initiated most of these cleanups, but because that didn't happen here, it fell onto state and local government when they did not have the money.

SPEAKER_01:

Right, but the state and local government what FEMA maxed out originally under the Biden administration, did they not? Did they not give us everything we asked for when Biden was in office?

SPEAKER_00:

I don't know that, to be honest. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

So my understanding was Biden gave California the maximum amount of money before he left office. And it was not cut back. So the question is, why was it not asked for while they knew that they had Trump coming in?

SPEAKER_00:

And why was it insufficient? Well, the bottom line is that it was insufficient.

SPEAKER_01:

And I'm I'm I'm not saying that Trump's totally blameless in this, but I'm also saying I think that we have to have some culpability here and accountability in our own state and local government, which again, the pattern is your friend, or is it the what is it that you're the trend is your friend, trend is your friend. There you go.

SPEAKER_00:

And as you've heard me say before, the call is coming from inside the house, folks.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, again, it's just if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck. But, anyways, go on, Sean. I didn't mean to interrupt.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, it's okay. Um, the point was that for those who don't, and I apologize, I'm still eating pretzels. I'm sorry, guys, I'm like in a very pretzel-eating mood. And if you've ever opened a brag of pretzels, it's hard to step away, especially when they're the gluten-free ones that I can actually eat, which is rare.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, so she can't have the good ones at the bar, the soft ones.

SPEAKER_00:

Don't tell me that the oh no, I can't, and I love those with the mustard and the oh my god. Now my brain is gonna be completely fucked up because now I'm just like I'm like Homer Simpson over here, like, oh Pratzel. Um so exactly. So what happened for us is that you know, the Army Corps and its subcontractors, largely, though not entirely, which we're gonna delve into, but largely did as complete and as solid of a job as they possibly could with the parameters that they were given and what was in the contract. But what that included was the uh what they called the uh the fire perimeter or like the um what was that what I'm losing the exact term for the foot the footprint. It was the the footprint, right? The ash footprint. So in reality, the ash footprint is the entire community. Okay, that's the whole community, including the standing homes, but I digress. But by this definition, it was where structures sat. So it was like we can clear, um, you know, and I believe it was a six-inch clearance in those areas of where your home sat and where any um additional structures, ADUs, garages, sheds, et cetera, sat. Those things could be pulled. But what was done that was in past cleanups that we did not receive was typically a two to three inch scrape of the entire property because we know that contaminant does not just stay inside of a perimeter that is drawn on a map, um, and it is in fact everywhere. And then following that, post-remediate what they called post-remediation uh testing. So the remediation would have been the clearing, the post-remediation testing would be the uh clearing would be the testing. We didn't get any of that. We had no testing, and that's why, you know, you have groups like EFRU, Eaton Fire Residence United, Um, uh Jane and Don and Nicole working really hard, specifically as this relates to standing homes and how difficult it is. But, you know, and because we know that these things are largely still contaminated and these contaminants are largely still in the community. So, you know, all of us who had Army Corps cleanup, including myself, um, you know, a handful of people chose to go private. I considered that as well, thinking that would be easier with my insurance dollars. But at the time, it was near impossible to do that because none of the um when we when I really wanted to get it done without waiting for months and months and months, a lot of the private contractors were not able to ramp up quickly to do this because they didn't know where they could dump to what would be an approved facility for them to dump this toxic debris.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it was supposed to be a golf course originally.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, that's where they ended up right. Well, yeah, no shit. And then they still ended up processing all of the concrete there. And that's a whole other environmental issue. A lot better than what it was gonna. I know it would have been even worse, but it's still bad. That golf course is just destroyed, and I think is slated to be remediated in time to reopen in 27, if I'm not mistaken. Um I don't know. And that and the neighbors around are really uh surrounding that are very upset by what they were exposed to while they were in their standing homes and and uh let's say misled, let's use a softer word, misled on uh because you know, it's long story short, it was bad. But um, so all of us though, who I was saying that it was hard for those private contractors to ramp up at the time because they didn't weren't getting the information that they needed, which felt, you know, to them certainly and to many in the community like it was perhaps deliberate to force people into just going the Army Corps route because that is more money than back into county.

SPEAKER_01:

Because I was gonna say, doesn't the county didn't the county get reimbursed based upon the money that was through the core that your insurance they build your insurance? So and so why are they a billion dollars short if they build your insurance?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, there's there's so many questions that what was funded was a billion dollars short for for the for an adequate cleanup of like that that would have been the equivalent of what happened in 2018 for Wolsey. Uh again, we could go down this rabbit hole all day.

SPEAKER_01:

And don't they have the Edison money?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I can't. Okay, all right, so I cannot. I'm just the bottom line. Steve is underscoring the degree to which we are fucked again, guys. Sorry. I will I'll take it on the swear jar. I was taking it on the swear jar.

SPEAKER_01:

But I mean asking questions, which would be nice if the media Yes, I know, I know.

SPEAKER_00:

It's it's more government failure and more questions about where is this money going? It's it's manipulation and incompetence.

SPEAKER_01:

Sorry, manipulation is a wrong word. It's just like, come on.

SPEAKER_00:

I would say incompetence, except it's deliberate. I know. I just I don't know either.

SPEAKER_03:

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't understand. Here we are. All right. The environment the community is still an environmental disaster. Those of us who even have who had army, well, those of us who had private but uh cleanup that was incomplete or just completely shady, and and I have neighbors sharing those stories. Um, and I'll and I'll get to one of them. Like we have that scenario, but we also have now coming into light that not all of the Army Corps lots were cleared to the same degree. And there's a couple of variables at play. One was that they changed the standards as they went along. So they kept kind of refining the standard, refining the standard. So the, for example, one of the lots adjacent my property was one of the very first to be cleared in March. And um, a lot was left, including the entire uh footing that was, you know, a massive concrete structure that a solarium sat on top of at their home. And that was deemed, you know, not uh not what they would remove, not in the footprint, like for example, our driveways and pony walls and all manner of things that got left behind. So that was there. But once they got on to future revisions of that plan, it quietly, you know, became evident in the community and and we made people aware to the degree that we could that, like, hey, you can call Army Corps and ask them to come back and do additional clearing so that it is comparable to your neighbors. And so in this case of that neighbor, they they were successful. They called, they requested it, they didn't have any follow-up, but they came back to their lot one day and it was all gone. They went ahead and pulled it while they were working on a neighbor's lot. And that's so that was great. Um, but you know, another neighbor who is adjacent my property, who's just a couple doors up, same kind of thing, wondering why they were left with um the pad that the garage sat on. Like, why is this here? Because for whatever reason, ECC, TetroTech, who was governing, who was, you know, monitoring and directing, they were they were one of the subs, but they were directing the subcontractors, the operators, those actually doing the work. It wasn't up to the operators to make those decisions. No, no, but TetraTech was overseeing the project. They were managing the project. They were being told what to do by the proper the the project manager on site. And for whatever reason, it was very inconsistent. And some people got left with more and and some with less, and some were successful in having them come back and do additional clearing, and some were not. And now we're seeing other things cropping up. Um, like I'll use example of someone else in our community who is a friend of mine who discovered after the first round of rains we had the season that they had a sinkhole on their property. And we're like, what is this?

SPEAKER_03:

And it was like, well, this is a horrible story.

SPEAKER_00:

Is there a sewer line there? Is there, you know, what could it be, right? The thousand things or maybe hundred or dozen things that could have caused this. Let's let's go in. So when I was up there with someone, we, because these friends are like so many, displaced, you know, an hour away. Um, you know, I was like, let me go take a look and make sure this doesn't get any worse before the rains, thinking, do we need to tarp this thing or what? And when we went and looked at it, I couldn't believe what I saw. There was a very clear ash line, you know, like if you were looking at the striation, you know, in a geology image, right, of the strata of the earth. And about three inches, three, four inches down was a very clear dark line of ash. And then below that, where the sinkhole was opening up, were chunks of material that had very clear ash and char on them. Old broken bricks, concrete, you name it. And it turns out that the subcontractor on their cleanup had actually just mixed this debris into the soil and kind of hidden it there instead of properly removing all of it, which means for the layperson again listening who doesn't understand this, the soil cannot compact. So there's ways, and water will always find a way. And then you end up with erosion and you end up with the sinkhole. And now, since that, they've had additional with more rain and more runoff on their lot, they have found broken burnt tiles, broken burnt glass, more debris left behind by the Army Corps all over their lot.

SPEAKER_01:

No, not the the Army Corps sub.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, it is fair. They but it's the Army Corps sub, but I'm sorry, the Army Corps and the County are responsible.

SPEAKER_01:

But here, here's you know, they are the responsible whoever that sub is that did that work, and if they build the government, I mean that could be that no, I mean, yes, but that could be well. Let me tell you where this is gone.

SPEAKER_00:

So, you know, we have our connections with public works and with county. Um, so for all of you know our frustration with county and public works that we express here, you know, that these are our systems. We work within them. I talk to these people regularly. I have tremendous respect for many of them. Um, and so I went to one of the people I know in public works who is high up and we'll leave it at that, and just said, hey, this is a scenario. It's really disturbing. Here are all the photos. Who do they contact? They put them in touch with, you know, someone who did get on it rather immediately. But if you can believe this, the response they got was, This must have been from previous construction on your lot. And the friend was like, Are you kidding me? Number one, no, it isn't. And number two, how would it all be fire charred? And three, even if it was, if you had done your job, there's no way any of it would have been left behind, but it wasn't. And now they are completely getting the runaround and wondering if they have to take legal action. It is absolutely appalling.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I mean, I think the media can figure out who this is.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, to me, the US attorney can make a very quick inquiry, and this is a false claim, and that could be tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. I mean, depending on the size of this, potentially, this could be a huge thing if the federal government's been involved in any of this.

SPEAKER_00:

It's it's beyond. It's so it's so disturbing and so upsetting.

SPEAKER_01:

Depending on who billed who for what.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. I mean, again, it's accountability. All right. I can accept that somebody fucked up. I think we can all accept that those are, we hope, isolated instances, and it happens, and you take accountability and you come back and you clean it up and you fix it. That's it. I know. And make sure that our community is safe for everyone. That's it. I had another neighbor reach out after seeing that my lot was all cleaned up. And I want to share for everybody that, like on my lot, the original Army Corps cleanup was approximately 35 truckloads, all right? On my 9,000 square foot lot, I'm just shy of 9,000 square feet. That 35 truckloads across two and a half days of my life. That's what it took to clear my lot. And what was left behind? Seven truckloads. Okay. The dump fees alone to get that off my property was thousands of dollars. And I've got to now go do the dance between county, public works, insurance, et cetera. Right now, I had to pay for that out of pocket. And it was not an insignificant amount of money. And I had to pay out of pocket until I figure out who the hell's covering it while I still battle state farm and everything else. Um, so it is really unconscionable. And I'm, again, the fortunate one that I had, you know, some other insurance money that I could afford to pay to pay for it out of pocket. Most of the people in our community cannot. So they're living with it, including the woman who reached out and shared her story that on her lot, where she used a private contractor who shall remain unnamed, that a number of people in the community have used, she discovered that her eight-foot, you know, she didn't, a big basement and what was an eight-foot pit, they filled into four feet and they filled it in with all the fire debris. She said it is twisted metal, burnt concrete, ash, you name it. And wondering how the heck do I pay a second time to now get this cleaned up and who's covering it? And this is what we're living with. I mean, you have another situation on the commercial side where commercial lots still are not being cleaned up, still are not being forced to be compliant in a meaningful way. And you have neighbors who are in standing homes living adjacent those lots that are highly contaminated and uncleared, while the county is in court, is now in court with some of those trying to figure out how to, you know, force clearing.

SPEAKER_01:

So the point of this entire conversation In this respect, give the county credit, they're trying to finish the clearing.

SPEAKER_00:

And I I also Absolutely, but the neighbor's frustration is that it is still incomplete. No, that even no, Steve, that even after they get the order from the court to do it, the job that is being done is this very half unfinished job that they then have to now live next to forever.

SPEAKER_01:

So this is what's interesting is that people know people nationally have said to me, they think about the example of what Josh Shapiro did in in Philadelphia when the I-95 collapsed and how they were able to get it done in 11 days. They just said, screw it, we're gonna do whatever we have to do, get it done, and move on. They got they waived all the regulatory, all the leg everything. We're still 11 months in. And I understand repairing a freeway is different than repairing a town. But you know, we've waived all these we waived Sequo, we wave, we've waived this, we waived that. We had the Stafford Act, which basically made everything unaccountable from a contracting perspective. And yet at the same time, here we are still sitting there.

SPEAKER_00:

And we we have, as I like to say, we have the technology, you know. Um, and it is wildly frustrating, especially in a town where you know we continue to underscore the fact that we are the most amazing town of the most amazing resilient people and the most incredible creatives and thinkers and minds. We have people like you, Steve. Okay. And I know you don't want to be in that, but I'm serious. We have you, we have Disney Imagineers.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, wait, thank you. I I'm not I don't I don't consider myself with those folks.

SPEAKER_00:

But we do, but we have so many great minds. We have all these Disney Imagineers who, frankly, could be forget working on a park. They could be imagining an entire city. Yeah, okay. This is literally what they do. They could be creating an appropriate and sensitive utopia. And um, instead, you know, we're we're just fighting for scraps and doing it all piecemeal. We have, we are, we are literally are sitting on top of JPL NASA. We have literal rocket scientists who are the members of our community. And guess what? All these folks, the imagineers, the rocket scientists, the creatives, the the artists, all of them lost their homes and are willing here and able and wanting to find a better path forward. And again, because we're all working in these silos and no one's talking to each other, none of that is really being tapped in a meaningful way. And it is beyond frustrating because if we had meaningful leadership, it would be bringing all of these voices into a room in a meaningful way without thought about who's in control and who's power and who's this and who's that. Fuck that. We have a town to rebuild. It is time to come together, and we're gonna talk about that a little bit more in the next episode.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, because it's not just us, it's the Palisades, too. Correct.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I'm gonna I'm gonna wrap us up because we did. Oh, we have run an hour long. Um, let's talk about, let's wrap on a brighter note.

SPEAKER_01:

It's been I'm gonna leave it in your capable hands.

SPEAKER_00:

To be to be positive.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, you know, we got you going, we got you warmed up.

SPEAKER_00:

So it has been, you know, we're heading into the holidays, right? We're we're recording this episode the week after Thanksgiving. Um, we've had so many amazing holiday events. So for our small business shout-outs, I just want to talk about all the events that have been happening. We um had last weekend uh the rhythms of the fall village fall festival that happened at Mir High. Um, we had the long-awaited reopening, official reopening of Mariposa Junction, and those shops, including you know, Carciofi, which I'm gonna pronounce correctly because it is in fact Cartichoke in Italian, um, got reopened finally, which is amazing to see her back in her business. Um, Ditto Sideca, who are now operating, you know, back in their shop. Um, we also um just immediately this weekend, we had the winter bloom market that happened um along with ornaments for Altadena, which uh at the Odyssey campus. So again, we're utilizing our school campuses that are still standing. It was really nice. I'd never been on that Odyssey campus, even though I've driven by it a hundred, a thousand times, thousands of times probably. But um what a beautiful little campus that was with the most beautiful views, and it was such a nice family vibe. It was just Altadena. No media, no press ops, none of that. It was just the community, a lot of small vendors, micro businesses. Our farmers market was there, a number of our orgs were there, and the job that the uh the team of neighbors, and it was neighbors who also lost their homes, um, what they put together for the ornaments for Altadena event was so beautiful. They also had a stand that separate um operation ornament was also there. They're a national org that um works with groups all over the country, um, some faith-based, some not, who create ornaments and then bag them up with their stories and little messages that come. See, I'm gonna like probably cry talking about this. There was one that was like a little button snowman made by like a three or four-year-old who had written in like, you know, three or four-year-old learning to write chicken scratch, we love you. And um, it was the sweetest thing. So, you know, I think that is like that little bit of hope and um being those little reminders, I think, are what are getting all of us through, especially through the um this holiday season that is is undoubtedly gonna be really difficult for many. So, as we look ahead, there's lots of other ways to engage in the community and to support our community, be it local or if you're not local, we'd love to see you come support our businesses. Um, plant material has their winter market happening at their their um Altadena location, which is at Lincoln and Altadena Drive. That is next weekend on Saturday, December 13th and Sunday, December 14th from 10 to 4. Um, and you can find more about that on their Instagram at Plant Material. And we also have, um, you know, not last and certainly not least, um the 105th annual Christmas tree lane lighting happening on Saturday, December 13th. And that also has a hyper-local maker's market that is hosted in the Altadena Library parking lot. Um, I highly suggest, even though that event, you know, there's there's mixed feelings about it, it's like I think everyone here is overwhelmingly grateful that the lane stands, that those trees survived, which is its own miracle and also a testament to the fact that the trees do save communities from fire. We need our trees for a thousand climate reasons.

SPEAKER_03:

Especially the deodors, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But um, those trees did an incredible job protecting that that most of the homes on that street. And um the fact that we have this incredible community of volunteers, the Christmas Tree Lane organization, who have tirelessly done this for a hundred years and are now coming out doing this again despite their own losses, um, and getting those trees relit, which is no small feat. And of course, all of the lights had to be replaced. They're outdoing that.

SPEAKER_01:

So they were up to I I was driving by it this morning. Yeah, they're up.

SPEAKER_00:

They're outdoing it.

SPEAKER_01:

And it's just it's so nice to have just that reminder that we, you know, there's a little bit of normalcy.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's right. So I think that, you know, for better or for worse, just as in the last few years, it's gonna be a very highly attended event. I think they're expecting 15,000 people this year because this has been so widely publicized outside of just our I'm sure it'll be in the papers and on the nation. It's everywhere already. And we, you know, and we also now have a Disney inclusion this year that, you know, some are thrilled with and others, of course, are not. But um the bottom line is it's happening, and whether you can or want to make it or not, it's wonderful that it's happening. And um, if you can make it, even if the crowds later are too crazy, come during the day when the winter village market is happening and go support our small businesses.

SPEAKER_01:

Um But it runs all the way through the end of the year, right?

SPEAKER_00:

It sure does. No, the market?

SPEAKER_01:

No, no, the uh the Christmas tree lane.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, you can come do it any time.

SPEAKER_01:

I used to we used to go, we always swing it.

SPEAKER_00:

Walk it after the fact. Yeah, of course, me too. It was literally on my way in and out every day going from home. But I used to um walk down right at the end when everybody was leaving, yeah, but the streets were still closed, so you could go walk down and back up uh with no cars on the road and everything dark, and it was really quite beautiful and magical.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's a tradition in our feeling, too.

SPEAKER_00:

It is, and I don't know how that'll be this year with nowhere to walk to and from, but maybe I'll just park it in my lot and do it. So there we are.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, look, I I think the biggest thing to close this out with is there's still hope. There's always hope. And let's continue to have hope is it's something that somebody very close to both of us said to me yesterday we need to have hope. And let's continue to have it. So in this season of you know renewal and you know uh change and just continue to have that hope and continue to drive forward, Altadena. We're gonna get there.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep, we're gonna get there. So until next time, uh you know where to find us. Um I'm Shauna, I'm beautiful Altadina. You can find me on instant and our groups. Um you can find our private neighbors only, community-only group on Facebook. You can find um public page on Facebook plus our Instagram. Um, I push tons in stories. Do not miss um the stories on our beautiful Altadina Instagram account. I share events, happenings, media articles. Honestly, I probably share 20 things a day in stories. It's an incredible wealth of information for the community of what's going on and resources and things to take advantage of. Um, and then of course, you can find me on Substack um as well as Steve.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, the Alts Policy Walk on Substack for those that uh read it. Thank you, the five or 10 of you.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, there's more than that, Steve. Steve likes to be silly about this, but he's got plenty of readers. So um until next time, you know where to find us, and we'll talk to you soon.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you.